About

Summary

The Astronomy Undergraduate Program at the University of Antioquia (UofA) and the Leiden Observatory (LO) are seeking to become twin institutions with the specific goal of boosting the development and improving the quality of astronomy teaching and research at the UofA and the Andean region. The grounds are already laid: on the UofA side, a successful undergrad program has been underway over the last 3 years and has a total of 129 students, with the first graduates expected by the end of 2013. On the Leiden side, the excellent research level and the experience with their BSc and MSc programs have produced successful astronomers, and their model is ready to be applied in developing countries. We have three specific goals: 1) create a joint UofA-LO committee that will evaluate the structure and content of the courses offered at the UofA, as well as provide advice on new courses and possible research fields on which the Colombian students can carry on their thesis work; 2) diversify the courses offered by UofA by having visiting LO professors (at least 1 per year) who will teach specific topics and become part of the official astronomy pensum, and 3) allowing for the visit of UofA students to carry on small research projects under the supervision of LO researchers (at least 1 per year). We expect the twin program to last for 5 years in total, and to have a regional impact by sharing the lectures online to a wider audience. Here we ask for funding for the first year.

Context and objectives

Over the last 10 years the community of Colombian professional astronomers has grown considerably, and to date we have dozens of astronomy PhDs working as researchers at several reknown institutions in the world. Some of them have returned to Colombia to teach and to start research groups at local universities. Colombian institutions have responded positively by launching at least one Bachelor and one Master program in Astronomy. At the moment, several efforts are on its way to guarantee access to professional telescopes for Colombian students and young researchers, and a proposal has been sent to the IAU OAD to create a development node in Medellin, Colombia.

Several of these efforts have been led by the Astronomy Institute at the UofA in Medellin, one of the leading public research universities of the country. Its bachelor program is equivalent in both duration (5 years) and structure (research thesis at the end) to the Dutch bachelor + master system, but it is currently lacking teaching force in several fields of astrophysics. Their program started 3 years ago after approval by the Colombian Government and is attached to the Physics Department of the UofA, which provides the funding for the program. They currently have 129 enrolled students from all regions of the country, with the first graduates expected by the end of 2013. As the only BSc astronomy program, they have also received inquiries from international students in Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela to join the program next year.

The LO is one of the leading astronomy education and research institutes in Europe. It has been considered as one of the top 5 astronomy research institutions in the world. Its education program has produced successful astronomers that following their Leiden stay access the most worldwide competitive astronomy research fellowships. For example, more astronomers with a PhD from Leiden have won the prestigious Hubble fellowship than from any other university outside the USA. In the Leiden structure, research is a very important part of the formation, and a complement to the classwork at all stages of formation. We believe that this type of structure is at the core of its success in producing competitive astronomers, and we want to apply a similar method at the UofA. Leiden has received several Colombian students over the years and is a natural partner in the current effort to improve the quality of astronomy education in Colombia. Both the UofA and the LO have agreed to join efforts.

The first main goal of this proposal is to diversify and improve the quality of the courses offered at the UofA by setting up a joint UofA-LO committee that will meet on regular basis (at least twice per year) and will produce a report with specific suggestions for the improvement of the education offered at the UofA. This committee will also evaluate the progress of the collaboration. With the implemented changes, we are aiming at having students that are very well prepared (above average) to carry on a carreer in astrophysics and join competitive PhD programs. Our experience has shown that a considerable percentage of those students will return to Colombia after their PhDs or first postdocs, but even if this is not the case, this proposal will place the UofA Astronomy program as a reference for other universities in the region, and will attract new students from Colombia and other countries of the region (Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia).

The second goal of the proposal is the increase in the number of highly qualified astronomy lecturers at the UofA. We will arrange for at least one LO visiting professor per year, who will teach one intensive (up to 3 weeks) course that will be based on the courses already offered by the LO. The courses will be taught in English and will be graded. They will also account for some of the credits that the students require to obtain their degree, complementing, or if the committee considers it, even replacing some of the already existing courses at the UofA. Because LO professors are also at the forefront of world astronomy research, we will guarantee that the content learned by UofA students will be relevant for their carreers and for the future of astronomy. Visiting LO professors will also act as active members of the evaluation committee during their visit.

We aim at having at least one UofA student visiting the LO during 2013. The candidates will be selected among the most advanced students of the program, based on their performance, trying to keep a balance in genre, so that if the first student is a male, the next one should be a female. The students will carry a short (3-6 month) research project at the LO that will be the basis of their thesis work. We expect that some of these projects will develop into longer-term collaborations with Leiden astronomers and eventually into high impact publications. Papers led by Colombian students/scientists/institutions would be a considerable leap in the development of astronomy in the country, and this proposal will seek by all its means to have at least 3 UofA-led papers published at the end of the 5 year-period. Similar exchange programs are currently being designed between the UofA and institutions in other countries of the region (e.g., with the CIDA institute in Venezuela). This adds to this proposal a regional dimension that can be fully explored.

Finally, we want to emphasize that this proposal is not restricted to the academic dimension or to the environment of the UofA only. In terms of regional impact, we propose to make the lectures and public talks resulting from this collaboration available to a broader audience in Colombia and Latin America, by posting them, online in dedicated servers. The UofA has the technological capacity to do so. BSc and MSc students in other Colombian institutions will thus benefit from the lectures. Similar schemes have been applied successfully by other prestigious institutions, such as the Stanford University. In addition, the UofA has effective partnerships with outreach institutes and musea such as the EXPLORA park in Medellin, one of the two largest science parks in the country. UofA students work as museum guides at the EXPLORA park. The outreach activities carried out by UofA students and researchers can be enhanced with the participation of Leiden professors, or just by the experience that exchange students can gain as LO visitors. Not only the students, but also the Medellin community will be possitively impacted by this proposal.

Implementation

The first phase of the project will be the mutual exchange of information between the UofA and the LO regarding the current structure and content of their education programs. A specifically appointed committe composed by two members of each institute will evaluate this information and a first report will be produced on what the UofA community finds useful for their education purposes in the LO program, as well as what suggestions the LO community can make to improve the content of the UofA courses. The output of this first exchange will be the selection of the potential courses that will be given by LO professors in Colombia. This first phase will also include the arrangement of the legal and bureocratic issues at the institutes level to make it possible to include new courses in the UofA program.

The second phase comprises the first round of guest LO lectures in 2013. The professor(s) will visit the UofA for up to three weeks and will be assigned a working space. They will teach one course each that will meet the evaluation standards of both the UofA and the LO, according to the recommendations made by the committee. The students will have to pass an exam at the end of the courses and the corresponding credits will be assigned. Time allowing, the LO professor will also be asked to give a seminar for the UofA physics community and a public talk at the EXPLORA park. During his/her stay, the LO professor(s) will also act as an active member of the committee and will provide suggestions to the UofA education managers. After his/her return to Leiden, the four-member committee will meet and evaluate the result of this first visit.

In the third phase, one or two advanced UofA students will be selected to visit the LO and perform a small research project that will be the basis of their research thesis. Note that they will be part of the first generation of astronomy graduates at the UofA, and it would be great if their thesis can be a collaboration with the LO. Depending on the funds, the visit will last up to six months and during that period, the student will also be given the opportunity to attend some of the LO courses. This time it will be the students who will actively act as provisional members of the committee and will learn from the way in which education is carried out in Leiden. In this phase we will also evaluate the regional impact of the online lectures.

A final meeting will take place at the end of the Academic year (early December) to evaluate the progress and discuss improvements for the following year. A follow-up to the visiting student's thesis will try to get the thesis in good shape for a paper draft.

This presentation is part of a project presented to the Office for Astronomy Development of the IAU in 2012. Written by Juan Rafael Martinez-Galarza and Jorge I. Zuluaga.